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Hearings to Shape FEMA's Future

By

Robert BlockStaff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Updated Sept. 15, 2005 12:01 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON -- Congress opened hearings yesterday to figure out what went wrong in the immediate response to Hurricane Katrina and resolve the question of what is to become of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA has become synonymous with the government's bungled response to the hurricane, with a number of politicians saying part of the problem is that the agency is no longer cabinet-level but rather a small cog in the mammoth Department of Homeland Security.